u 


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by 


Wyti.  H.Sco-tt 


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''^K  PRINCETON,  N.J.  ^ 


C.l 


Scott,  William  H. 
Men  in  the  church 


Men  in  the  Church 


AN  ADDRESS 


DELIVERED 


Before  the  Synod  of  Pennsylvania 


FIRST  PRESBYTERIAN   CHURCH,  YORK,   PENN'A 


THURSDAY    EVENING,    OCTOBER    28,   1909 


WM.   H.  SCOTT 

Elder  in  the  Market  Square  Church,  Germantowx,  Philadelphia 


Allen,    Lane    &    Scott 

1211-1213  Clover  Street 

Philadelphia 


Men  in  the  Church 


In  discussing  the  subject  of  the  relation  of  men  to 
the  church,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  in  dif- 
ferent churches  different  conditions  prevail,  and  that 
while  in  some  the  conditions  are  good,  yet  generally 
men  are  not  in  the  church  in  large  numbers  and 
many  of  those  who  are  therein  are  far  from  living 
the  life  and  exerting  the  influence  they  should.  I  do 
not  propose  this  evening  to  dwell  at  length  upon  the 
question,  "Why  men  do  not  go  to  church?"  except 
so  far  as  the  answer  thereto  relates  to  the  charac- 
ter and  conduct  of  the  men  who  are  already  there. 

Possibly  I  can  find  no  better  text  for  my  dis- 
course than  that  which  I  incorporated  in  the  report 
made  by  me  as  Chairman  of  the  Standing  Committee 
on  the  Brotherhood  to  the  last  General  Assembly. 
It  was  the  definition  of  the  Brotherhood  given  by 
Rev.  Maitland  Alexander,  D.D.,  at  one  of  the  pop- 
ular meetings,  and  is  as  follows:  ''The  idea  of  the 
Brotherhood  is  to  arouse  the  conscience  and  to  stim- 
ulate men  to  perform  the  duties  and  fulfill  the  vows 
which  they  voluntarily  took  upon  themselves  when 
they  united  with  the  church." 

By  way  of  introduction  let  me  say  that  pastors 
and  elders  have  worried  themselves  because  more 
men  do  not  go  to  church,  and  have  resorted^to  vari- 


4  MEN    IN   THE   CHURCH. 

ous  measures  to  induce  them  to  come,  but  often 
without  success.  The  church  has  been  acting  on  the 
K  principle  that  it  cannot  get  along  without  men,  and 
appeals  to  them  to  come  in.  Would  it  not  be  better 
to  make  men  feel  that  they  cannot  get  along  with- 
out the  church,  and  so  fill  them  with  a  sense  of  the 
advantages,  temporal  as  well  as  spiritual,  to  be  de- 
rived from  membership  that  they  will  be  anxious  to 
unite  with  it?  The  time  will  never  come  when  the 
church  will  have  a  waiting  list  like  the  Union  League 
or  Presb3rterian  Social  Union  of  Philadelphia,  but  it 
would  be  refreshing  to  see  men  become  spiritual 
aviators  and  "fly  as  a  cloud  and  as  the  doves  to  their 
windows."  Possibly  the  reason  that  there  are  not 
more  men  in  the  church  is  because  Sessions  are  un- 
able to  control  and  direct  the  men  they  already  have, 
having  failed  to  develop  to  any  extent  their  spiritual 
nature.  Some  people  have  just  about  as  much 
money  as  they  are  able  to  take  care  of.  Some 
parents  have  just  about  as  many  children  as  they 
can  properly  raise.  So  it  may  be  with  a  church. 
Take  one  in  which  there  are  one  hundred  men. 
Suppose  that  suddenly  this  number  should  be 
doubled  and  that  the  new  comers  had  just  about 
as  much  piety  as  the  original  one  hundred,  I  am 
afraid  the  pastor  would  say,  with  Job,  *'0h!  that  I 
were  as  in  months  past." 

We  might  quote  the  language  of  the  Saviour  as 
in  some  sense  applicable  to  the  case:    ''If  therefore 


MEN   IN   THE  CHURCH.  5 

ye  have  not  been  faithful  in  the  unrighteous  mam- 
mon who  will  commit  to  your  trust  the  true  riches  ? ' ' 
"  He  that  is  faithful  in  that  which  is  least  is  faith- 
ful also  in  much. " 

What  I  want  to  plead  for  to-night  is  more  thought 
about  and  more  work  for  the  men  who  are  at  present 
in  the  church.  Not  quantity,  but  quality,  and  how 
to  improve  it  will  claim  our  attention.  My  idea  is 
that  the  more  we  can  awaken  the  conscience  and 
stimulate  men  to  perform  their  duties  and  fulfill 
their  vows,  the  more  can  they  be  used  for  the  bring- 
ing in  of  others  and  for  the  advancement  of  Christ's 
Kingdom  in  the  world. 

At  the  present  there  are  too  many  standards  of 
Christian  conduct  by  which  men  are  judged.  The 
pastor  represents  one  type  of  Christian  manhood. 
He  must  be  intellectual,  moral,  spiritual,  circum- 
spect in  all  his  ways,  a  man  of  large  sympathies, 
with  a  Christ-like  spirit,  ready  to  rejoice  with  them 
that  do  rejoice  and  to  weep  with  them  that  weep. 

The  elders,  it  is  true,  must  be  pious  men  given  to 
prayer  and  are  to  be  examples  to  the  flock,  but  then 
if  they  do  things  which  the  pastor  dare  not  do,  their 
conduct  is  condoned  or  overlooked,  possibly  be- 
cause they  give  their  services  voluntarily.  If  the 
elders  were  employed  by  the  church  in  the  same 
sense  that  the  pastor  is  I  am  afraid  many  of  them 
would  lose  their  positions  and  be  known  as  W.  C.'s 
[Without  Charge].     The    way  the  church  thinks  as 


5  MEN   IN   THE   CHURCH. 

regards  the  every  day  life  of  the  pastor  and  elder  is 
well  illustrated  by  the  old  story  of  the  minister 
from  Scotland,  who  while  in  London  went  to  the 
theatre,  and  there  met  one  of  the  elders  of  his 
church.  They  both  expressed  surprise  at  seeing 
each  other  in  such  a  place,  and  when  the  elder  asked 
the  dominie,  ''What  will  the  people  say  when  I 
tell  them  I  saw  you  in  the  theatre,"  the  pastor 
replied  :  ''They  will  say,  '  Jimmie,  you're  a  liar.'  " 

As  to  the  trustees,  some  of  them  seem  to  be  of  a 
different  order  of  rehgious  beings  from  either  the 
pastor  or  elders.  They  are  often  selected  because 
of  their  business  ability  or  their  wealth.  It  is  not 
at  all  necessary  that  they  should  be  even  professing 
Christians.  They  can  (I  do  not  say  they  all  do) 
play  cards,  go  to  the  theatre,  indulge  in  intoxi- 
cating drink,  provided  the  financial  affairs  of  the 
church  are  well  managed.  My  point  is  not  that  all 
trustees  are  worldly-minded  men,  but  that  if  they 
are,  it  is  no  bar  against  their  holding  that  office. 
Why  should  it  be  considered  right  for  trustees  to 
indulge  in  questionable  amusements  or  to  gratify  cer- 
tain of  their  appetites,  and  wrong  for  the  pastor  or 
elders  to  do  the  same  things  ? 

And  then  as  to  many  of  the  church  members,  it 
is  a  kind  of  "go  as  you  please"  performance.  Dis- 
cipline is  a  dead  letter,  and  the  parable  of  the  tares 
and  wheat  is  appealed  to  as  a  Scriptural  reason  why 
nothing  should  be  done  to  the  inconsistent  Christian, 


MEN   IN   THE   CHURCH. 


for  does  it  not  say,  /'Let  both  grow  together  until 
the  harvest."  There  is  some  wit  and  some  truth 
in  the  story  of  a  man  who  was  invited  to  become  a 
member  of  the  church.  He  declined  on  the  ground 
that  there  are  too  many  hypocrites  and  liars  in 
the  church  now.  His  friend  said,  "Don't  let  that 
hinder  you;  there  is  room  for  one  more.  "  Be  it  far 
from  me  to  say  that  the  men  in  the  church  to-day 
are  mostly  hypocrites  or  to  do  anything  to  dis- 
courage those  of  Httle  faith.  Rather  let  us  imitate 
the  Saviour,  of  whom  it  was  said,  ''A  bruised  reed 
shall  he  not  break  and  smoking  flax  shall  he  not 
quench." 

In  my  opinion  the  church  will  never  exert  the 
great  moral  force  in  the  community  that  it  should 
until  the  standard  of  Hving  is  so  raised  that  there 
will  be  a  clearer  distinction  between  the  men  of  the 
church  and  the  men  of  the  world.  Ask  any  busi- 
ness man  to-day  and  he  will  tell  you  that  church 
membership  is  not  equivalent  to  integrity  and  up- 
rightness, and  that  in  many  instances  the  men 
making  no  profession  are  soHd  to  the  core  in  their 
business  deahngs.  Why  should  the  Church  Register 
not  be  a  better  book  than  either  Dun  or  Brad- 
street  to  consult  as  to  a  man's  credit  or  character? 

The  last  recorded  words  of  Peter's  great  sermon 
on  the  day  of  Pentecost  were:  ''Save  yourselves 
from  this  untoward  generation."  As  a  result  the 
same  day  three  thousand  were  added  to  the  church. 


8  MEN    IN    THE    CHURCH. 

These  "ate  their  meat  with  gladness  and  single- 
ness of  heart."  It  is  well  to  notice  what  followed: 
''  The  Lord  added  to  the  church  daily  such  as 
should  be  saved."  I  do  not  look  for  any  great 
ingathering  in  our  time  until  the  men  now  in  the 
church  are  revived  and  quickened  by  the  power  of 
the  Holy  Spirit  in  the  use  of  the  means  within 
their  reach. 

In  developing,  the  men  in  the  church,  I  would 
begin  wherever  possible  with  the  Sunday  School. 
John  S.  Hart  said :  "  The  Sunday  School  is  the  agency 
beyond  all  others  for  increasing  and  developing  the 
working  talent  and  the  Christian  graces  of  the 
church."  The  Sunday  School  to-day,  as  never  be- 
fore, is  appealing  to  men  not  only  to  become  teachers 
but  students.  I  have  in  my  library  a  number  of 
books,  some  twenty,  thirty,  and  forty  years  old,  re- 
lating to  the  Sunday  School.  Looking  through 
them,  I  find  little  reference  to  men  in  the  Sunday 
School.  The  former  generation  considered  it  a  place 
for  children  and  called  it  the  nursery.  To-day  it 
is  more  than  a  place  for  Httle  children.  Men's 
Bible  Classes  organized  for  work  are  now  much  in 
evidence,  as  well  as  Adult  Bible  Classes,  some  of 
the  latter  containing  more  men  than  women. 

One  of  our  problems  is  to  hold  the'  boy  in  the 
Sunday  School,  but  if  he  finds  that  men  are  attending 
it— his  father  or  big  brother  perhaps,  he  will  not  be 
so  likely  to  drop  out  and,  to  use  his  own  language, 


MEN    IN    THE    CHURCH.  9 

say,  "  It  is  only  a  place  for  kids.  "  If  the  large  boy 
is  retained,  it  is  likely  he  will  continue  after  he  be- 
comes a  man.  Men  who  attend  Sunday  School  will 
attend  church,  and  they  will  be  likely  to  bring  others 
with  them. 

The  modem  front  line  Sunday  School  has  in  it  a 
Teacher  Training  Class,  and  this  class  or  classes, 
being  composed  of  men  as  well  as  women,  will  in 
the  course  of  time  produce  stronger  and  better 
equipped  teachers,  who  will  make  the  instruction 
in  the  Sunday  School  amount  to  more  than  it  has 
in  the  past. 

Then  there  is  the  Home  Department.  It  is  true 
this  department  is  made  up  largely  of  women,  yet 
there  are  some  men  connected  with  it,  and  this 
number  can  be  increased.  Attendance  at  the  Sun- 
day School  or  membership  in  the  Home  Department 
means  Bible  Study,  and  this  means  growth  and 
development. 

I  see  in  the  Men's  Organized  Bible  Class,  in  the 
Adult  Bible  Class,  in  the  Teacher  Training  Class, 
and  in  the  Home  Department,  an  advance  in  the 
quality  of  Christian  manhood  now  to  be  found  in 
the  church. 

Another  agency  that  augurs  well  for  the  men  of 
the  church  is  the  Brotherhood.  No  church  to-day 
is  fully  alive  to  its  mission  that  has  not  in  connection 
with  it  some  kind  of  a  men's  organization,  call  it. 
Club,    League,     Brotherhood,    or    what    you    will. 


10  MEN    IN    THE   CHURCH. 

Though  there  may  be  social  features  connected  with 
them,  the  ultimate  aim  should  be  to  lead  the  mem- 
bers to  Hve  Christ-like  lives,  which  will  be  mani- 
fested in  their  interest  in  other  men,  both  inside  and 
outside  of  the  church,  in  prayer,  in  missionary  effort, 
and  in  personal  work  for  the  Master.  Undoubt- 
edly the  most  helpful  work  done  by  the  Brother- 
hood is  through  the  meetings  for  prayer  and  con- 
ference. They  not  only  cultivate  the  devotional 
spirit,  but  they  also  give  opportunity  for  the  exer- 
cise of  the  gifts  of  prayer,  song,  and  speech. 

In  the  development  of  the  moral  and  spiritual 
life  of  men  much  depends  upon  the  preaching.  It 
must  be  scriptural,  manly,  free  from  cant,  nothing 
that  is  far  fetched,  not  pedantic,  but  earnest,  prac- 
tical, and  helpful. 

In  the  autobiography  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  to 
which  special  attention  has  been  called  lately  be- 
cause it  is  mentioned  in  the  five-foot  book-shelf  of 
President  Eliot,  we  have  an  interesting  page  show- 
ing the  effect  of  preaching  on  Franklin.  Doubt- 
less most  of  you  have  read  his  experience,  but  as 
the  preachers  were  Presbyterians,  and  reference  is 
made  to  the  Synod,  which  is  now  our  General  As- 
sembly, it  seems  appropriate  to  refer  to  it  here. 
He    writes : — 

"Though  I  seldom  attended  any  public  worship,  I  had 
still  an  opinion  of  its  propriety  and  of  its  utility  when  rightly 
conducted,  and  I  regularly  paid  my  annual  subscription  for 


MEN    IN   THE   CHURCH.  11 

the  support  of  the  only  Presbyterian  minister  or  meeting  we 
had  in  Philadelphia.  He  used  to  visit  me  sometimes  as  a 
friend  and  admonish  me  to  attend  his  administrations,  and 
I  was  now  and  then  prevailed  on  to  do  so,  once  for  five 
Sundays  successively.  Had  he  been  in  my  opinion  a  good 
preacher,  perhaps  I  might  have  continued,  notwithstanding 
the  occasion  I  had  for  Sunday's  leisure  in  my  course  of  study ; 
but  his  discourses  were  chiefly  either  polemic  arguments  or 
explications  of  the  peculiar  doctrines  of  our  sect,  and  were 
all  to  me  very  dry,  uninteresting,  and  unedifying;  since  not 
a  single  moral  principle  was  inculcated  or  enforced,  their  aim 
seeming  to  be  rather  to  make  us  Presbyterians  than  good 
citizens. 

"At  length  he  took  for  his  text  that  verse  of  the  fourth 
chapter  to  the  Philippians:  *  Finally,  brethren,  whatsoever 
things  are  true,  honest,  just,  pure,  lovely,  or  of  good  report,  if 
there  be  any  virtue,  or  any  praise,  think  on  these  things. '  And 
I  imagined  in  a  sermon  on  such  a  text,  we  could  not  miss  of 
having  some  morality.  But  he  confined  himself  to  five  points 
only,  as  meant  by  the  apostle:  1.  Keeping  holy  the  Sabbath 
day.  2.  Being  diligent  in  reading  the  holy  Scriptures.  3.  At- 
tending duly  the  public  worship.  4.  Partaking  of  the  Sacra- 
ment. 5.  Paying  due  respect  to  God's  ministers.  These 
might  be  all  good  things;  but  as  they  were  not  the  kind  of 
good  things  that  I  expected  from  that  text,  I  despaired  of 
ever  meeting  with  them  from  any  other,  was  disgusted,  and 
attended  his  preaching  no  more.  I  had  some  years  before 
composed  a  little  liturgy  or  form  of  prayer  for  my  own  pri- 
vate use  (in  1728),  entitled  'Articles  of  Belief  and  Acts  of 
Religion. '  I  returned  to  the  use  of  this  and  went  no  more 
to  the  public  assemblies.  My  conduct  might  be  blamable, 
but  I  leave  it  without  attempting  further  to  excuse  it;  my 
present  purpose  being  to  relate  facts  and  not  to  make  apolo- 
gies for  them." 

*  He  *  *  ♦  ♦  ♦ 

"About  the  year  1734  there  arrived  among  us  a  young 
Presbyterian  preacher,  named  Hemphill,  who  delivered  with 
a  good  voice,  and  apparently  extempore,  most  excellent  dis- 


12  MEN    IN    THE   CHURCH. 

courses,  which  drew  together  considerable  numbers  of  differ- 
ent persuasions,  who  joined  in  admiring  them.  Among  the 
rest  I  became  one  of  his  constant  hearers,  his  sermons  pleasing 
me,  as  they  had  little  of  the  dogmatical  kind,  but  inculcated 
strongly  the  practice  of  virtue,  or  what  in  the  religious  style 
are  called  good  works.  Those,  however,  of  our  congregation 
who  considered  themselves  as  orthodox  Presbyterians  disap- 
proved his  doctrine,  and  were  joined  by  most  of  the  old  minis- 
ters, who  arraigned  him  of  heterodoxy  before  the  synod,  in 
order  to  have  him  silenced.  I  became  his  zealous  partisan, 
and  contributed  all  I  could  to  raise  a  party  in  his  favor  and 
combated  for  him  awhile  with  some  hopes  of  success.  There 
was  much  scribbling  pro  and  con  upon  the  occasion,  and 
finding  that  though  an  elegant  preacher  he  was  but  a  poor 
writer,  I  wrote  for  him  two  or  three  pamphlets  and  a  piece 
in  the  Gazette  of  April,  1735.  Those  pamphlets,  as  is  gener- 
ally the  case  with  controversial  writings,  though  eagerly  read 
at  the  time,  were  soon  out  of  vogue,  and  I  question  whether 
a  single  copy  of  them  now  exists. 

"During  the  contest  an  unlucky  occurrence  hurt  his  cause 
exceedingly.     One  of  our  adversaries  having  heard  him  preach 
a  sermon  that  was  much  admired,  thought  he  had  some- 
where read  the  sermon  before,  or  at  least  a  part  of  it.     On 
searching,  he  found  that  part  quoted  at  length  in  one  of  the 
British  reviews  from  a  discourse  of  Dr.  Foster's.     This  de- 
fection gave  many  of  our  party  disgust,  who  accordingly 
abandoned  his  cause   and  occasioned  our  more  speedy  dis- 
comfiture in  the  synod.     I  stuck  by  him,  however.     I  rather 
approved  his  giving  us  good  sermons  composed  by  others 
than  bad  ones  of  his  own  manufacture,  though  the  latter 
was  the  practice  of  our  common  teachers.     He  afterward 
acknowledged  to  me  that  none  of  those  he  preached  were  his 
own,  adding  that  his  memory  was  such  as  enabled  him  to 
retain  and  repeat  any  sermon  after  once  reading  only.     On 
our  defeat  he  left  us  in  search  elsewhere  of  better  fortune, 
and  I  quitted  the    congregation,  never    attending  it  after, 
though  I  continued  many  years  my  subscription  for  the  sup- 
port of  its  ministers." 


MEN    IN    THE   CHURCH.  13 

Now  I  do  not  want  to  excuse  or  justify  Franklin 
for  his  conduct,  but  suppose  the  preaching  had 
been  of  a  different  kind,  and  that  such  a  brainy  man 
as  he  had  been  reached  by  the  gospel  through  the 
preached  word,  what  a  power  he  would  have  been 
in  the  world. 

As  I  am  addressing  many  preachers,  I  would  like 
to  say  to  them  on  behalf  of  the  laymen  that  we  are 
a  little  tired  of  Browning.  His  meaning  is  hard  to 
fathom  when  reading,  but  much  harder  when  quick- 
ly recited. 

All  honor  to  the  preachers  and  to  the  preaching 
of  to-day,  but  is  there  not  room  for  improvement? 
A  strong  man  in  the  pulpit  will  produce  strong  men 
in  the  pew. 

Again,  to  stimulate  men  to  perform  their  duties 
and  fulfill  their  vows,  work  must  be  planned  for  them 
and  judicious  use  made  of  the  talents  which  the  men 
possess;  and  here  I  can  but  throw  out  but  a  few 
hints.  Some  will  make  elders.  Go  slow  at  this. 
''Lay  hands  suddenly  on  no  man"  is  the  Apostolic 
injunction.  The  character  and  attainments  of  every 
man  in  the  church  should  be  studied  and  an  effort 
made  to  locate  him  where  he  can  be  blessed  and  be 
a  blessing.  It  is  more  difficult  to  find  a  niche  for 
some  men  in  the  church  than  it  was  to  find  a  place 
for  the  statue  of  Quay  in  the  capital  at  Harrisburg. 
If  you  cannot  assign  the  man  where  he  can  do  good, 
be  sure  and  put  him  where  he  can  do  no  harm. 


14  MEN    IN    THE   CHURCH. 

I  think  we  have  not  made  as  much  use  of  the 
men's  abiHty  to  speak  and  sing  as  we  should.  In 
some  churches  there  are  men  who  can  speak  well 
in  the  Prayer  Meeting  whose  voices  are  seldom  if 
ever  heard  outside  of  their  own  church.  Push  such 
men  out.  Prisons,  asylums,  rescue  homes.  Young 
Men's  Christian  Associations,  &c.,  are  calling  for  men 
to  help  in  the  services,  and  some  men  need  to  be 
encouraged  to  go.  Lawyers,  judges,  professors,  and 
other  talented  men  have  been  going  to  church  Sab- 
bath after  Sabbath  and  they  will  not  seek  oppor- 
tunities to  speak,  having  perhaps  too  much  humility. 
The  pastor  can  place  them,  but  then  how  often  he 
feels  that  their  presence  would  be  missed  in  his  serv- 
ices, and  that  he  cannot  spare  them.  There  are  too 
many  men  in  the  church  to-day  who  for  years  have 
been  receiving  and  have  failed  to  give.  They  have 
forgotten  the  words  of  Jesus :  "It  is  more  blessed 
to  give  than  to  receive,"  which  will  apply  to  other 
gifts  besides  money. 

And  then  some  men  have  the  ability  to  sing.  How 
seldom  do  men  with  good  voices  consecrate  this  tal- 
ent to  the  Lord,  except  in  the  church  to  which  they 
belong.  If  a  layman  has  any  ability  as  a  speaker 
he  will  go  from  place  to  place  and  speak  without 
compensation,  but  if  another  can  sing,  he  must  be 
paid  for  this  service.  We  want  consecrated  singers 
in  the  church  as  well  as  consecrated  speakers.  Moody 
and  Sankey  were  both  laymen.     It  is  true  they  made 


MEN    IN    THE   CHURCH.  15 

Speaking  and  singing  their  life  work,  but  are  there 
not  some  minor  Moodys  and  Sankeys  who  on  the 
Sabbath  days  or  nights  during  the  week  would  vol- 
unteer their  services  for  the  spiritual  uplift  of  their 
fellows  ? 

Lastly,  the  Layman's  Missionary  Movement  af- 
fords a  fine  opportunity  to  enlist  men  in  the  inter- 
ests of  the  Kingdom.  J.  Campbell  White  says  that 
''this  movement  presents  to  men  the  greatest  pos- 
sible spiritual  challenge;  it  makes  the  largest  pos- 
sible demands  upon  men;  it  presents  to  every  man 
the  largest  opportunity  of  service;  it  satisfies  the 
deepest  spiritual  ambitions  of  men;  it  presents  the 
speediest  and  surest  method  of  saving  the  churches, 
and  it  helps  to  restore  the  unity  of  the  church." 
This  Movement,  although  only  three  years  old,  has 
done  much  to  persuade  men  that  they  are  needed 
in  the  business  of  the  church,  especially  in  the  w^ork 
of  evangelizing  the  world. 

Now  that  I  am  about  through  I  hear  some  brother 
say,  "Oh!  it  is  so  easy  to  theorize  about  men  in 
the  church."  "Talk  is  cheap."  No  one  appreci- 
ates that  more  than  the  speaker.  Let  us  see  if  we 
cannot  agree  as  to  certain  facts,  backed  up  by 
Scripture. 

First.  That  there  are  some  grand,  noble,  and 
earnest  Christian  men  in  the  church.  These  are  de- 
scribed by  Jethro  as  "Able  men,  such  as  fear  God, 
men  of  truth,  hating  covetousness. " 


16  MEN    IN    THE    CHURCH. 

Second.  That  there  are  many  men  in  the  church 
who  are  not  fulfilling  their  vows.  They  are  like  the 
members  of  the  Laodicean  church,  "  Lukewarm  and 
neither  cold  nor  hot." 

Third.  That  there  are  many  men  in  the  world 
not  in  the  church  and  have  no  desire  to  be  in  it. 
They  are  like  Gallio  who  cared  for  none  of  those 
things. 

Fourth.  The  strong  men  in  the  church  are  some- 
what responsible  for  those  who  are  living  at  a  poor 
dying  rate  as  well  as  for  those  who  are  spiritually 
dead.  ''We  then  that  are  strong  ought  to  bear  the 
infirmities  of  the  weak.  "     I  am  my  brother's  keeper. 

Jacob  had  twelve  sons.  They  represented  dif- 
ferent types  of  character.  They  did  not  all  have 
the  traits  of  Joseph  and  yet  they  could  all  say,  "  Thy 
servants  are  twelve  brethren  the  sons  of  one  man." 
''  God  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  nations  of  men  for 
to  dwell  on  all  the  face  of  the  earth."  Having  a 
common  father,  it  devolves  upon  us  to  love  all  men 
and  so  to  influence  their  lives  that  from  the  heart 
they  can  say,  ''  Our  Father  who  art  in  Heaven.  " 

The  problem  of  the  men  in  the  church  is  a  diffi- 
cult one  and  hard  to  solve.  But  if  the  men  of  the 
world  like  to  do  hard  things  such  as  the  discovery 
of  the  North  Pole,  why  should  the  man  of  faith,  the 
man  of  God,  shrink  from  the  discovery  of  some 
way  to  bring  men  into  the  church  and  hold  them 
there. 


H 


MEN    IN    THE   CHURCH.  17 

We  are  living  in  an  age  when  the  cause  and  cure  of 
disease  claim  the  attention  of  men  of  medical  science. 
Thousands  of  dollars  are  being  spent  and  many  men 
are  devoting  their  lives  in  research  as  to  what  pro- 
duces cancer,  for  instance,  in  the  human  system. 
Thus  far  without  result,  but  one  thing  we  know, 
that  in  the  last  analysis  the  cause  of  this  as  well  as 
all  other  disease  is  sin.  We  are  living  in  an  age 
when  the  State  is  disturbed  by  questions  arising 
between  capital  and  labor,  socialism,  anarchism,  mu- 
nicipal corruption,  &c.,  and  associations  are  being 
formed  and  millions  of  dollars  are  being  spent  to 
benefit  society  and  free  it  from  its  ills.  In  seeking 
to  know  the  cause  of  this  unhappy  condition  in  the 
State  in  the  last  analysis  it  is  sin.  As  regards  the 
church,  when  the  question  is  propounded  as  to  why 
men  do  not  go  to  church,  and  as  to  why  men  who  do 
go  are  not  interested,  the  answ^er  in  the  last  analysis 
is  sin.  Just  so  far  as  we  can  eradicate  sin  from  the 
body  human,  the  body  politic,  and  the  body  ecclesi- 
astic, there  will  be  increased  health  and  Hfe.  The 
battle  is  on.  Satan  is  leading  his  forces  and  his  re- 
cruiting stations  are  to  be  found  at  the  saloons  which 
are  in  existence  in  our  State  and  in  other  States  by 
permission  of  the  Christian  people,  yes,  and  by 
permission  of  Presbyterian  Christians. 

What  is  the  church  doing  to  enHst  men  in  the  war 
against  sin  and  unrighteousness?  Compared  with 
Satan's  emissaries,  precious  little.     It  is  almost  as 


18  MEN    IN   THE   CHURCH. 

hard  to  get  men  into  the  church  now  as  it  is  to  ob- 
tain recruits  in  the  regular  army  of  our  country. 
Every  day  at  Independence  Square,  in  Philadel- 
phia, there  stands  a  sergeant  of  the  United  States 
Army  endeavoring  to  get  young  men  to  enlist.  He 
tells  them  what  are  the  necessary  requirements,  what 
is  the  pay,  and  what  is  expected  of  those  who  are 
mustered  into  the  service.  Let  us  as  soldiers  in  the 
army  of  Jesus  every  day  act  as  recruiting  officers 
to  bring  in  not  only  the  young,  able  bodied  men, 
but  the  sick,  the  aged,  the  debauched,  the  outcast, 
remembering  that  our  Captain  has  said,  "  Him  that 
cometh  to  me  I  will  in  no  wise  cast  out.  " 

What  the  church  needs  is  a  revival  of  religion,  not 
a  man-made  revival,  but  a  God-given  revival,  such 
as  some  of  us  remember  in  1858.  One  of  the  noble 
young  ministers  deeply  interested  in  that  revival 
was  the  Rev.  Dudley  A.  Tyng,  who  died  suddenly 
as  the  result  of  an  accident.  Almost  his  last  w^ords 
were:  "Stand  up  for  Jesus."  These  words  have 
been  immortalized  by  Rev.  Dr.  Duffield  in  his  hymn 
for  men,  the  second  verse  of  which  is : — 

"Stand  up,  stand  up  for  Jesus, 

The  trumpet  call  obey; 
Forth  to  the  mighty  conflict 

In  this  His  glorious  day: 
Ye  that  are  men  now  serve  Him 

Against  unnumbered  foes; 
Let  courage  rise  with  danger, 

And  strength  to  strength  oppose." 


MEN    IN   THE   CHURCH.  19 

We  are  living  in  a  record-breaking  age.  Steam- 
ships are  crossing  the  Atlantic  in  less  time  than  ever 
before;  railroads  are  shortening  the  time  between 
the  great  cities;  automobiles  are  smashing  all  pre- 
vious records,  besides  smashing  other  things;  air- 
ships are  going  faster  and  staying  up  longer  it  would 
seem  at  each  trial;  the  North  Pole  has  at  last  been 
reached  after  years  of  effort.  Is  it  not  time  for  the 
church  to  do  some  record  breaking  both  at  home 
and  abroad?  How  can  this  be  done  unless  the  men 
of  the  church  come  "to  the  help  of  the  Lord,  to  the 
help  of  the  Lord,  against  the  mighty.  " 

"We  are  living,  we  are  dwelling. 

In  a  grand  and  awful  time; 
In  an  age  on  ages  telling, 

To  be  living  is  sublime. 
Hark!   the  waking  up  of  nations, 

Gog  and  Magog  to  the  fray: 
Hark!   what  soundeth  is  creation's 

Groaning  for  its  latter  day. 

"Worlds  are  charging,  heaven  beholding; 

Thou  hast  but  an  hour  to  fight; 
Now,  the  blazoned  cross  unfolding, 

On,  right  onward,  for  the  right! 
On!   let  all  the  soul  within  you 

For  the  truth's  sake  go  abroad; 
Strike!   let  every  nerve  and  sinew 

Tell  on  ages,  tell  for  God." 


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